J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1831 > Abbotsford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tweed, in the Vale of Melrose 1831

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tweed, in the Vale of Melrose’ 1831
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
The Tweed, in the Vale of Melrose 1831
D25944
Turner Bequest CCLXVII 10
Pencil on off-white wove writing paper, 113 x 185 mm
Inscribed in pencil on paper ‘shingle’ lower centre and ‘shingle’ centre bottom
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘10’ top right and ‘271’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Appearing between views of Dryburgh and Melrose Abbey, which Turner visited in the same day, this sketch is likely to be of the River Tweed somewhere between the two points. Robert Cadell, who accompanied Turner on the outing, recorded in his diary that he went straight from Dryburgh to Melrose with the artist. However, they later crossed the Tweed and headed towards Leaderfoot to take views of the abbey from there.1 The present view is likely to be either looking west from near Ravenswood, made on the way to Melrose, or east from near Leaderfoot, made after visiting the abbey.

Thomas Ardill
September 2009

1
Robert Cadell, ‘Abbotsford Diary’, 8 August 1831, folio 109, National Library of Scotland, MS Acc.5188, Box 1; quoted in Gerald E. Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner and Sir Walter Scott: Iconography of a Tour’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol.31, 1972, pp.382–3.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Tweed, in the Vale of Melrose 1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-tweed-in-the-vale-of-melrose-r1134314, accessed 25 April 2024.